It’s been five years since Obama promised to close Gitmo

posted at 10:11 pm on January 23, 2014 by Mary Katharine Ham

The Capitol City Project reminds us of, perhaps, the first Obama promise that met the buzzsaw of reality once he was in office. Who would have thought closing a detention center full of detainees no country actually wants, which was designed to face the new and complex challenges of a 21st-century war without nation states or uniforms would be more complicated than just saying you want to close it?

A review by the administration during that time found 50 of the roughly 240 prisoners held at the facility were too dangerous to ever be released and should be held indefinitely, and only 36 of those held could be prosecuted in a federal court. It was also suggested 126 detainees be transferred to their home countries or another country that would openly accept them. However, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) criticized the report saying there was political interference coming from the White House.

The administration has made several pushes to make the transfer or prisoners easier. As of December 2013, 155 detainees remained at Guantanamo.

But it illustrates more than just Obama’s introduction to the real—not false— choices of being president and having to secure a nation (though there’s been plenty of that). It also illustrates that, when Speechmaking Obama overestimates the abilities of President Obama to actually follow through on something, neither Speechmaking Obama nor President Obama knows what to do after that. It’s why a guy who once had 60 votes in the Senate and sky-high approval ratings acts as if he’s never held a house of Congress. It’s why Obamacare is falling apart. It’s why we’re going to talk about “income inequality” all year and Obama’s going to “appeal to the American people” and “get out of the bubble” and “pivot” with a series of speeches, and it’s why none of it will work. Again. He can’t move the ball unless he can move the ball all by himself with a speech or an extra-consitutional penstroke. That’s his one and only move.

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Gitmo will soon be empty as all the jihadys will be out with US citizenships and lifelong benefits.
The place will be used for Hussein’s enemies, like Dinesh, O’Keefe, Catholic nuns and bakers who don’t bake on demand .

I would have closed it but George Bush stopped me from doing so. Or maybe it was some video? Let me go ask ValJar what it was and I’ll get back to you. I know it wasn’t my fault whatever it is and that some low level rouge employees that were probably left over from George Bush must have kept it open just because they hate me because I’m Black.

I see an opportunity for bipartisan compromise. Let’s quickly sentence all the Gitmo detainees to death, carry out the sentences, and THEN close Gitmo.

Everyone’s happy! In fact, the death sentence can be carried out by martyrdom, We’ll let each of the little bastards blow themselves up (all together, out in the new soccer field, and with only detainees around). Now, EVERYONE truly WILL be happy.

Glad he broke this promise.
The plan to try these scumbags in federal court in New York went nowhere; glad for that.
Feed them to the sharks in the waters around Guantanamo Bay so they can be like their sheik Bin Laden, fish food.
Gitmo really needs expanding and water boarding needs to be done on new arrivals.
“Glasses” is till breathing. So is Mullah Omar and that fat ass Adam Ghadan (sp?)

I would have closed it but George Bush stopped me from doing so. Or maybe it was some video? Let me go ask ValJar what it was and I’ll get back to you. I know it wasn’t my fault whatever it is and that some low level rouge employees that were probably left over from George Bush must have kept it open just because they hate me because I’m Black.

What difference does it make now anyway?

VorDaj on January 23, 2014 at 10:33 PM

President Bush had his then National Security advisor brief Obama after Obama won in 2008 and before he was sworn in at least once. I understand that the first meeting really shook Obama with the follow ups adding fuel to the fire. He thus signed an order closing Gitmo knowing Congress would howl and never intending to close it knowing the “journalists” in the MSM who fight over who gets to blow him would drop it.

If His Majesty wanted to close Gitmo in a year, he could have pulled out all the guards and blown up the prisoners with some well-aimed Hellfire missiles from a drone. Just shake hands so his buddy Fidel Raoul doesn’t shoot it down.